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“Thank you for the dance, Slade.”
She was leaving when he caught her arm, stopping her.
“Would you like to go shopping with me tomorrow?” he asked.
“Shopping?”
“I need to get my parents an anniversary present. I was thinking of taking a trip to the mall. You don’t drive, so if you’d like to go with me, the offer is still there.”
“That would be fantastic. I’ll be ready.”
She pulled away, and sat down in her seat. The stench of cigarette smoke was around Chuck, and she found it turned her stomach a little bit. She didn’t like cigarettes. Many of her mother’s lovers had been smokers. Once they had visited with her mother, fucked her, and stood outside to have a smoke, Cassie had seen them, looking all smug. At the time, she didn’t know they were having sex. The rocking of the caravan and her mother’s screams had been a game, or so her mother had told her.
“What were you and Slade talking about?” Jessica asked.
“Just some stuff.”
“You’ve got to be careful of Slade. He runs through women faster than pack of wolves chasing a bunny,” Chuck said.
She turned to Chuck. “We work together, and I’m aware of how he treats women.”
Chuck moved closer, and placed an arm across the back of her chair. “So, what do you think of a tour of the ranch?”
****
“How long have they been married?”
“Thirty-six years,” Slade said. He glanced over at Cassie, who was scrolling through her cell phone. She had just gotten a text, and he was curious about who she was texting. Instead of asking, he gritted his teeth.
“So it’s not a milestone or anything?”
“They’ve done the milestone, even though that was a relief in itself.” He always found himself cynical around his parents’ anniversary. Every year he tried not to be, yet it still happened.
“Why is it a relief?” she asked.
“Because they shouldn’t have gotten married. There are a lot of the times when I don’t think they even love each other. They put up with each other.”
“Thirty-six years is a long time to put up with each other.”
“They got married because my mom was pregnant with me.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“So you’re thirty-six. Ha, I never knew.”
He found this funny. “You didn’t know my age.”
“Nope.”
Slade knew her age, and her date of birth, along with the fact that she loved daisies. There were so many growing in her garden, and he had watched her stroke the cute flowers. They were not the small plants either, but the large ones with the huge blossoms.
“They must love each other to still be together.”
“My father has had numerous affairs,” Slade said. Just saying the words out loud left a bad taste in his mouth. “He didn’t love her enough to keep it in his pants.”
“And your mother forgave him?”
